Following the High Court ( HC) order the Uttarakhand Medical Services Selection Board ( UKMSSB) has restarted the process of recruitment of 138 assistant Professors for the government medical colleges of the state.  A bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Sharad Kumar Sharma vacated its earlier interim order of putting a stay on selection process and directed the government to fill up 138 posts of Assistant Professor.

The Chairman of the UKMSSB, Dr D S Rawat told The Pioneer that the board has got the order and based on it the process of recruitment of assistant Professors has been re-initiated. He said that the Board has now extended the last date for receipt of online forms for these posts by November 24. Dr Rawat exuded confidence that the board would soon conduct interviews and complete the recruitment process by December- January.

He added that the board has invited applications for 138 posts in 24 disciplines of medical education.

In Uttarakhand there are three government medical colleges, the Government Doon Medical College, Medical College Haldwani and Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Medical College Srinagar. In absence of permanent appointments for last many years most of the faculty members in these medical colleges are working on contract. In such a condition these medical colleges are marred by absenteeism, frequent changes and other problems associated with contractual employees. The appointment of new permanent faculty members in these colleges is expected to bring stability in teaching positions.

To fill large number of vacant positions of faculty members in the government medical colleges the UKMSSB started a drive to fill 138 posts of assistant professors in 24 disciplines in September this year.

 However the open recruitment decision has not gone well with the Assistant Professors working on contract in these medical colleges. Their contention was that they were selected after a proper process in which every criterion like reservation was followed and for more than two years they had worked hard to ensure the medical colleges got the mandatory permission from the Medical Council of India (MCI).

In the GDMC alone there are about 30 such assistant Professors the services of whom would get terminated once permanent appointments are done.  Some of these contractual faculty members went to the HC on which it issued a stay on the recruitment process last month. This stay however has now been vacated.